Radiohead Concert

As promised, I put up a couple pictures of us at Radiohead's concert in Santa Barbara. We were on Radiohead's guestlist because my sister's got all kinds of hook ups, so we got into the concert for free! This is one of those things that you always wish would happen but never really does. But then it did. When I heard a while back that we might get free tickets to the concert, I really hoped it would happen, but didn't really think it would. It's just one of those things that doesn't seem likely to pull through. It's like your rap artist cousin that always on the brink of cutting a big record deal with Dr Dre, but it never really happens. It was kind of like that.... So here are a couple pictures of us at Radiohead, which was an amazing concert and super fun to be at with all my brothers and sister. Thanks again, Gin!!! And Radiohead, thank you too because you got us in for free and played music for us...

Dave's 2nd Interview

Summer has officially started for Bolts of Thunder, and we are underway filming a new video. With a new video on the way, it's only right that we start up a new round of interviews. The interviews we did last year were some of the funniest things I've ever read and funnest posts we've put on the blog. We wanted to start things off right again this year with an interview with Dave McDonald. Dave is one of my best friends and one of the funnest people to skate or hang out with. It's always a good time, and you can count on him doing something crazy on his skateboard. So here is the low down of Dave McDonald and pretty much what you need to know about him. Make sure to click on the links on the words, he's got some funny stuff in there...

As a side note, welcome AJ as Bolts of Thunder's 42nd official follower!!!! It's good to have you officially on the team. That reminds me, Sam Milianta is still not an official follower. We need to get on that... Behold, Dave's interview:

(MrBoltsofThunder) So what's going on in your life these days? Where are you now, what are you doing? What does a normal day in the life of David McDonald consist of?

(Dave) In Paris, still. I just work. Still teaching English to spoiled, rich kids in the Parisian suburbs. Normal day sees me waking up when its still dark and commuting for an hour or so to my school. I read and listen to some music on the train; its not so bad. I also get to wear some nice thick coats, which I like to do. Everyone I work with thinks I'm a serious educator, but I'm just a joke. I can fake anything.

Besides the part-time adult nonsense, I've been skating, playing some guitar, making some videos, taking some pictures, investing, gambling, rioting, raving, posing, insulting, and apprenticing for a soap-maker. Yeah, got a lot on my plate, I guess. 

I remembered this story the other day that you told me way back when of this bully at high school. As I recall, he wanted you and your friends dead. Then your friend stood up to him and got punched in the stomach and didn't flinch until the kid left. Something to that effect. Would you mind going into detail on that story?

 So, there was this meat-head named Richard Calvin--a real wanker. He hated us because we dressed like Ed Templeton, naturally. We also had our own tight-knit crew of losers called the Weird Kids. Some jocks started calling us that, so we went with it. 

   Anyways, this Dick fellow had it in for us. He'd always bark at us and stuff. One day he said some crap to my friend Nick MacDonald (who invented the late shove-it and the triple kickflip, btw) and Nick just mocked him right back. Meat-head just let loose and nailed Nick in the gut, hard. This guy was way bigger than us. I think he was held back a couple years or somethin'. Anyways, Nick took it and just stared back at the guy. No flinch, nothing. Just absorbed a solid sucker punch. The guy just walked off. I could tell it hurt like hell, though. I'd taken a few sucker punches in my day. Its no walk in the park. 

What was your reaction to the last Bolts of Thunder video? What were your favorite parts/tricks? And more specifically, what was your first reaction to Dan, Nick, and Matt's parts? You can talk about mine if you want, but I won't ask you specifically...

I was sort of blasé, you know. There was a lot of hype leading up to it and I left the premiere (which is the only time I watched the video) feeling empty. Just underwhelmed I guess. I mean, where were the handrails? What, no flip tricks? Please. You're never gonna get picked up by anyone with all those early grabs and hippie jumps.

What would you like to see in the next Bolts of Thunder video? Any tricks that have been left undone or any spots that need to be skated? We're running out of ideas here, so any suggestions on your part would be appreciated.

Dan needs to land that backflip, am I right? Also, I need a good ol' fashioned roof drop from Nick. Matt needs to ollie something gnarly. I'm talking big boy pants. Sam needs a good manual line. Jon, you need to three flip that long flat gap that you put the fridge down. I need to see that. Ima ollie this. 

Give us your stats. How old are you, when's your birthday, how tall are you, how much do you weigh, how much can you bench press? You know, your stats.

I am 28 years old. I was born on December 4, 1983 in Thousand Oaks, CA. I am a bit under 6'0''. I weigh 165 lbs. I can bench my weight, I know. Not sure after that. I was a rookie in the '93 season. I have ollied up a five stair and down a fourteen. I have kickflipped an eleven stair. 

Any good stories from Paris or Europe in general? Had any more fights with Arabs or landlords?

Naw. Oh, wait I got one. One night a few weeks back I was frisked by some cops for trying to remove some vandals work from a building. It was midnight and I wanted to take down this mosaic from the wall that I liked. So, I was up on the roof of this Monoprix banging away at it for a bit, while my friend stood watch. Then a group of three people came up out of nowhere and asked what I was doing up there. I told them to move along as they were bringing too much attention to me. They're all, "yeah, well were cops." So, they made me jump down and searched me and stuff. They just couldn't comprehend what I was doing up there. They first thought that I was doing the graffiti, then they thought I was just weird and let me go. They just couldn't fathom that I was trying to scrape this thing off the wall just to keep it for myself. Yeah.  

I saw some bonus footage of Jean Marc in the video the other day that made me smile. Who is Jean Marc? Would you mind giving a physical description of him for our readers? When did he start skating and what kind of set up is he sporting? What's it like hanging out with him? Has he reduced his cigarette consumption at all? How does he justify smoking when he goes to such great lengths to take care of his health? I don't know why I'm asking about him, but I remembered him the other day and he made me laugh... 

Jean Marc is like one of the three Nephites. I really think he was put into my life to serve some higher purpose, and then one day will be gone. When I first met him, I thought he was some weird African immigrant-turned homeless; I quickly realized he was some weird French skater dude. I was with you when I first met him. It was like night time and he wanted to skate flat ground with us in the metro tunnels...

I'm so glad to count him amongst my friends. I just don't get him. I don't know if he is mental, or if he is fried, or what. He is always wearing a red helmet and whenever he calls me, he introduces him self as "the skater with the red helmet." Yeah. Last week we were skating and he showed my all his new pads. He has like full on football pads under his Dickies. He assures me that he needs them due to his risky maneuvers.

Hanging out with him is great. You can ask him anything in the world. He has premeditated responses to every question imaginable, but he never puts you down. I feel like I can totally be myself around him. 

Cigarettes? In full affect.  

So in France you didn't hesitate to hit that Arab kid with your board. What happened there, and what was going through your mind? 

I'm just racist, I guess. 

Foreign food has been known to upset our American stomachs at times. Or really often. Any good sharting/diarrhea stories from your stays over seas?

Nothing new. I will say this: I have yet to clog a toilet in France. Ask anyone I've ever lived with how impressive that stat is. I once pinched one off that was the size and shape of a grapefruit.

So I really liked our island scenarios from last year's interviews. We're coming up with new scenarios. Seeing as everyone on TV is getting ready for the zombie apocalypse, let's say there was one. If you could have one member of Bolts of Thunder to be with you at all times, who would it be? what would be your MO in staying alive? Would you hunt and fight zombies, would you hide out with your crew in the mountains?

Dan. Its always gonna be Dan.

Now let's say that the entire Bolts of Thunder crew is staking out in some warehouse in a large, zombie infested city. We've got quite a bit of amo, food, and water, but the zombies have caught our scent and are trying to break down the doors. What would go down in this scenario? How do you see Bolts of Thunder making its final stand?

We would just sit back and practice switch flips and let Dan go Rambo on everyone. We may have to occasionally pick off a zombie here or there, but from a distance. We would last as long as Dan stayed alive. If Dan went down, I'd probably just grab a grenade and kamikaze it.

I'm out of questions for now, but is there anything else you'd like to say? Any last words for this interview?

No.

Dances with Matt

They always did say that hippy jump hill bombs were his specialty. I don't think anyone would dispute that now. So here's Matt showing you what a ninja looks like when he's about ready to jump kick you in the face! So school's out for me now, officially. And even if it wasn't, I ain't goin anymore! So that means my brain should not be as scrambled and you'll get plenty of TLC on this blog. We're talking daily.

Back to Matt and jump kicking, I just remembered this bum that threatened to kick Matt in the face at Alberto's in Salt Lake. He suspected Matt, the Mexican girl behind the counter, the manager of the restaurant, and pretty much everyone within a 10 foot radius of him of wanting to fight him. He was standing on guard as he verbally assaulted the manager for not putting any lettuce or tomatoes on his bean and cheese burrito. Dude, you have to pay extra for that... But he didn't care, and he called the manager all kinds of names. The manager just stood there afraid and took it. It was pretty sad. Let me first describe to you the bum so you'll see it's not one of those scary ones that could actually hurt you. He was about my height, so we're talking 5'10'' and he was no more than 140 pounds. Probably a lot less than that. To save you the trouble of trying to figure out if 5'10'' and 140 pounds is a dangerous combo or not, I'll just tell you it's not. Plus, the dude looked like he had two stork legs. They were pretty much just bones with skin on them, and they bent in unnatural ways at the knees. The only thing going for him was that he seemed pretty confident in threatening the manager, so the dude gave in and put lettuce and tomatoes on his burrito.

So Matt was standing behind the guy in line. The dude was facing forward but used the hair on the back of his neck to sense motion from behind and picked up Matt on his radar. Sensing an obvious sneak attack on Matt's part, the bum thought he'd preempt him with some karate chop action to the neck. We call this a king lizard punch where I come from. So the dude quickly spun around, yelled out a mandatory Bruce Lee yelp, and chopped at Matt's neck, only sparing Matt's life by stopping a couple inches from the jugular. At that point, Matt did what any person in his situation would have done. He laughed. It was funny, and we all thought the dude was just messing around because of how pathetic it was. But the Samuel L. Jackson "I'm gonna mess you up!" look in his eyes told us a different story. He was serious. Then he told Matt not to stand behind him or he'll finish the job next time. Some people might have stood down at that moment, but not Matt. In Matt's eyes, that bum was the last thing standing between him and an enchilada. Matt is living proof that Hobbes was wrong; fear is not what motivates us more. It's hunger...

So Matt just stood there in line and ignored the bum. Then a couple minutes later the bum yelled out at Matt, "You stand behind me, and I'm gonna kick you in the face!!!" That was a pretty amazing threat seeing as the guy pretty much had no legs, and it would have been pretty awesome to see him try. But nothing happened, and Matt placed his order, ate his food, and we were on our way. When we walked out, the bum was still yelling and swearing at the girl that took his order and the manager for messing up something else. I guess this story had no point, but just imagine if Matt and this dude got into a jump-kicking fight. You see how high my boy's off the ground in that picture up there? Now just imagine his limber ledge stretching up into your abdomen. Serious, Matt's the most limber of us all, hands down. Yeah, you don't want to mess with that!

Running on Empty

I put up this picture today to show you that Matt and I, for all intents and purposes, are one. While our physical beings are divided and separate, we are one in our teamwork and direction of Bolts of Thunder. In the same way that you cannot see where I begin and Matt ends, you cannot tell where Matt's ideas start and mine crop up.

Actually, this picture is really just to cover up Matt's identity. You don't even know if that's Matt behind me. How would you know? You can't even see his face, so I don't believe you when you accuse that person of being Matt because why would Matt stand in the background of my shot?

School ends for me tomorrow, and my brain is running off of fumes. And I'm not going to tell you where those fumes are coming from because you'd try to steal my fumes from me and use them for yourself when you were tired. Truth is, you can't steal these kinds of fumes I'm talking about. You either got them or you don't. And I do. But I just wanted to get something up today, no matter what that thing was that I put up...

Dan does not disappoint

So I know you're thinking that I've completely abandoned the blog in pursuit of my own vain ambitions, and that's why I refuse to write new posts. In fact, I have not written at all in an entire week. But your assumptions are wrong because writing on this blog is my vain ambitions, and I don't' have any others as of now... You wouldn't' believe it if I told you, but my sister Ginger has all kinds of hook ups, and wouldn't you know it, but my brothers, sister, and our spouses/significant people ended up on Radiohead's guest-list at their concert in Santa Barbara. No joke! We got to see Radiohead for free last weekend, so we all packed up and headed down to California. That's why I haven't been writing, I've been too busy watching Radiohead play. Thanks, Gin! The concert was awesome, and I'll put up video and photo evidence of our little trip because I know you don't believe me...

Anyway, knowing that I haven't written in a week, I did not want to disappoint you in writing a new post today. Let me just tell you this, if you're ever in a tight spot in your life, just rely on Daniel R. Shaw to get you out of it. He's some kind of Houdini/Knievil/Kilmer skater dude that always lands on his feet. I did not want to disappoint you, and Dan does not disappoint. Ever. If you don't believe me, take a minute or two to examine those abs. Those of you that are anatomically/biologically inclined, you will appreciate his well-defined trapezius muscles. Then take a couple more minutes to examine his height in airing out of that jersey barrier. That's not a launch ramp, and it's not intended to be skated as one. It's a jersey barrier with a cement tranny built into it, and it's intended mostly for riding, sliding, and grinding. But not airing. But Dan just aired off it anyway, and several feet at that. So I hope now that the wait was worth it and that you will leave the blog with a sense of fulfillment in your life. Thanks, Dan

You can buy Garrett's video for half the price

So turns out that Garrett sold his house, furniture, car, and dog all so that he could afford to make a skate video. In these hard economic times, skate videos are not proving to be the most lucrative of businesses. So Garrett and his wife have packed up all they have and have been living on the streets for about a year now. It's not so bad, Garrett keeps trying to convince himself, for it seems to fit Garrett's lifestyle: he likes to get out as much as possible. So Garrett has now finished his video, and he's selling it. On his sight it say's it's $8, but due to special connections and what not, I can get the video for $4. For you math junkies out there, you'll recognize my price to be half of what others pay. For those of you who are not mathematically inclined, trust me, it's half the price. Anyway, if you want to see Garrett's video and help get a family off the streets, leave a comment on this post saying you'd like a video. I'll order them from Garrett, then give you the video while you give me the money. Get how this works? But until then, we'll let Garrett keep trying to convince himself that life on the streets is actually pretty decent. He doesn't look convinced though, if you ask me...

all about Rachel

So this post is about my wife, Rachel. You all can see and understand now why I often refer to her as "Whale Belly". So she's a real trooper and loves to come out and skate with us. She doesn't do much skating, but she takes pictures and provides friendly conversation for you when you're tired and just want to sit. She takes tons of behind the scenes pictures of when we're just warming up or whatever, and they're mostly way better than the pictures I take, so I've been putting them up on the blog a lot lately. I guess I just wanted to officially recognize her contributions to the Bolts of Thunder cause. Thanks, Rachel! Here are a couple pictures she took on one of her outings with us when we were just warming up and having fun. Enjoy!: